The Texas Tribune: LAW & ORDERhttp://www.texastribune.org/law-and-order/The latest articles about LAW & ORDERen-usSat, 01 Aug 2015 13:48:42 -0500Reports: Paxton Indicted by Collin County Grand Juryhttp://www.texastribune.org/2015/08/01/reports-paxton-indicted-collin-county-grand-jury/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections
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<img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/06/22/7C2A8842_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks to media after keynoting a June 2015 event hosted by the Texas Public Policy Foundation regarding impact of the EPA&#39;s Clean Power Plan.">
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<p><small>Editor's note: This story has been updated throughout.</small></p>
<p>Texas Attorney General <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/ken-paxton/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">Ken Paxton</a> has been indicted by a Collin County grand jury, Texas and national media<em>&nbsp;</em><a href="http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Texas-Attorney-General-Ken-Paxton-Indicted-Sources-Say-320384181.html" target="_blank">reported</a> Saturday, citing unnamed sources close to the case.</p>
<p>Paxton faces three charges in indictments that were issued Tuesday and instantly sealed, <a href="http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Texas-Attorney-General-Ken-Paxton-Indicted-Sources-Say-320384181.html" target="_blank">according</a> to&nbsp;<em>NBC 5</em>. The charges will be revealed Monday in McKinney,&nbsp;and a Tarrant County judge has already been tapped to oversee the case,&nbsp;<em>WFAA&nbsp;</em><a href="http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/local/texas-news/2015/08/01/attorney-general-ken-paxton-to-be-indicted-monday/30989247/" target="_blank">reported</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Kent Schaffer, one of two special prosecutors who took the Paxton case to the grand jury, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/us/grand-jury-indicts-texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-on-felony-charges.html">told</a> <em>The New York Times</em> that the indictments include three felony counts &mdash;&nbsp;two alleging first-degree securities fraud and another alleging a third-degree charge that he failed to register as a securities agent.</p>
<p>Schaffer said Paxton is accused of encouraging others to invest more than $600,000 in a company called Servergy Inc. without telling them he was making a commission and misrepresenting himself as a fellow investor.&nbsp;The grand jury also charged him with failing to register with state securities regulators for soliciting clients for Mowery Capital Management in return for fees.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Joe Kendall, Paxton's attorney, issued a written statement Saturday evening, saying, "Judge Gallagher has specifically instructed both parties to refrain from public comment on this matter and we are honoring the Judge&rsquo;s instructions."</p>
<p>That statement marked the first public notice that the case has been assigned to state District Judge George Gallagher of Fort Worth.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Wice and Schaffer issued a statement at about the same time as Kendall, reiterating their roles in the legal process.</p>
<p>"As defense attorneys, we have dedicated our careers to ensuring that every citizen accused of any crime is afforded the fundamental constitutional guarantees of the presumption of innocence, proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and a fair trial with a reliable result," they said. "Because our statutory mandate as special prosecutors is not to convict, but to see that justice is done, our committment to these bedrock principles remains inviolate."&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;">Paxton's spokesman, Anthony Holm,&nbsp;has criticized the investigations into the attorney general as politically motivated from the start. Others have been more circumspect, but said other prosecutions raise the specter of politics in such investigations.</span></p>
<p>"I think you have just a little bit of caution with it," said state Rep. <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/matt-krause/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">Matt Krause</a>, a Fort Worth Republican who is friends with Paxton.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Krause pointed to the current abuse-of-power indictment against former Gov. Rick Perry, one count of which was recently dismissed.</p>
<p>"I think it's all seen within the same universe of what's taking place, and that's why people are quick to think there's a political motivation or agenda behind it," Krause said.</p>
<p>Krause said Paxton, like many others, has been waiting to hear more details about the potential case against him.</p>
<p>"He always seems upbeat," Krause said. "I think he feels like a lot of people do: I'm not going to put my time, effort and energy into it until we know something serious about this."</p>
<p><span>Democrats pounced on the news of Paxton's indictment, calling it a result of the GOP's longtime hold on state government. Manny Garcia, the deputy executive director of the Texas Democratic Party, said in a statement that the case is "yet another example of the corrupt culture that fester with one-party, unchecked Republican power."</span></p>
<p><span>And Texans for Public Justice, a liberal-leaning group that pressed for Paxton's prosecution, met the news of the indictments by urging his resignation.&nbsp;<span>"The only acceptable response to today's indictment of Attorney General Ken Paxton is his resignation," said TPJ's Craig McDonald. "The state's highest law enforcement officer must be held to the highest standards of conduct. Ken Paxton's behavior disqualifies him from serving as Texas' top cop."&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></p>
<p>The two special prosecutors, Schaffer and Brian Wice, have been presenting evidence to the grand jury in connection with Paxton's self-admitted violation of state securities law.&nbsp;Schaffer had previously said he and Wice would pursue an indictment for first-degree felony securities fraud.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Conviction on a first-degree felony carries a penalty of 5-99 years or life in prison and a $10,000 fine; on a third-degree conviction, it&rsquo;s 2-10 years and a $10,000 fine.</p>
<p>Paxton admitted last year that he&nbsp;<span>solicited investment clients for a friend and business partner at Mowery Capital Management without properly registering with the state. He was reprimanded&nbsp;and fined $1,000 by the State Securities Board.</span></p>
<p><span>Schaffer and Wice, both attorneys from Houston, were selected to look into Paxton's admission after Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis, a friend and business partner of the attorney general, stepped aside.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>State officials do not have to step down from office if they are indicted, but convicted felons cannot serve.</p>
<p>Paxton is not the first statewide elected official in Texas &mdash; or even the first attorney general &mdash;&nbsp;to be indicted while in office. The indictments add his name to a list of accused Texas officeholders that includes then-Gov. <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/rick-perry/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">Rick Perry</a>, then-Treasurer <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/kay-bailey-hutchison/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">Kay Bailey Hutchison</a> and then-Attorney General <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/jim-mattox/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">Jim Mattox</a>. Former Attorney General <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/dan-morales/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">Dan Morales</a> was indicted and convicted after leaving office on charges that arose from litigation between the state and several big tobacco companies while he was AG.</p>
<p>Perry&rsquo;s indictment is pending. Hutchison and Mattox were acquitted and went on to win elections after their legal troubles were behind them. Morales served time in federal prison.</p>
<p>Another potential problem for Paxton is the cost of defending himself. If he were charged for something he did as a state officeholder or as a candidate, his campaign funds could be used to pay the lawyers who defend him. In the case of charges that stem from his private or personal business activities, his campaign funds are out of bounds, according to experts in state ethics laws. Paxton would have to pay for his defense out of personal funds or find some way to set up a separate defense fund that could solicit contributions on his behalf.</p>
Patrick SvitekSat, 01 Aug 2015 13:48:42 -0500http://www.texastribune.org/2015/08/01/reports-paxton-indicted-collin-county-grand-jury/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20SectionsDPS Trooper Warned in 2014 of "Unprofessional Conduct"http://www.texastribune.org/2015/08/01/dps-trooper-warned-2014-unprofessional-conduct/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections
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<p>The Texas Department of Public Safety trooper who arrested Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old black woman who was found hanged three days later in the Waller County Jail, was warned about his "unprofessional conduct" &nbsp;in 2014 while he was still a probationary trooper, according to his personnel file. &nbsp;</p>
<p>The agency released the personnel file late Friday for Trooper Brian Encinia, who stopped&nbsp;Bland for an improper lane change outside Prairie View A&amp;M University on July 10. Three days later, she was found dead in the Waller County Jail. The Texas Rangers, a division of DPS, are leading an investigation,&nbsp;assisted by the FBI.</p>
<p>Encinia was disciplined nearly a year ago while he was&nbsp;still a probationary trooper, his evaluation noted:&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: line-through;"><br /></span></p>
<p>"Trooper Encinia was given a written counseling for unprofessional conduct during this reporting period for an incident occurring while at a school in Austin," an evaluation for his performance for September and October 2014, reads. "In the future, Trooper Encinia should conduct himself at all times in a matter that will reflect well upon himself, the Department and the state of Texas. This supervisor will ensure that this is done by meeting periodically with Trooper Encinia."</p>
<p>No other details about the disciplinary action were provided in&nbsp;the nearly 80 pages of Encinia's file that were released to The Texas Tribune and other media outlets.&nbsp;</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/21/waller-county-press-conference/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">dashboard camera recording</a> of Bland's traffic stop on July 10 shows Encinia losing his temper after Bland refuses to put out a cigarette. He orders her to exit her vehicle and when she doesn't, threatens to use his&nbsp;Taser on&nbsp;her, yelling: "I will light you up."</p>
<p>Bland eventually exited the vehicle and&nbsp;was&nbsp;arrested after an exchange that was&nbsp;mostly out of view of the camera on Encinia's patrol car. According to the arrest affidavit Encinia filed, Bland was arrested for kicking him in the shin.&nbsp;</p>
<p>According to his personnel file, Encinia applied to be a trooper in December 2013 and completed trooper recruit school on June 20, 2014. For the next year he was listed as a probationary trooper. He&nbsp;finished that probationary period on June 19, and was promoted to highway patrol trooper on June 20. Less than a month later, he arrested Bland.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Encinia, a Texas A&amp;M University graduate who had worked as a district fire chief for the city of Brenham and for Blue Bell Creameries as an ingredient processing supervisor, was praised i<span>n all of his other evaluations during his probationary year.</span></p>
<p>"Trooper Encinia exhibits courage and appears to operate effectively under stress," Encinia's evaluation in December stated. "Trooper Encinia responds effectively and rationally to stress."&nbsp;</p>
<p>On Thursday, state Rep. <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/garnet-coleman/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">Garnet Coleman</a>, D-Houston, chairman of the Texas House Committee on County Affairs asked DPS Director Steve McCraw specifically about trooper training.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;">"What will you do to improve or do something about the training or what should we do?," Coleman asked.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;">McCraw did not offer any answers about the training.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;">"You raise a good point," he&nbsp;told Coleman.&nbsp;</span></p>
Terri LangfordSat, 01 Aug 2015 09:28:56 -0500http://www.texastribune.org/2015/08/01/dps-trooper-warned-2014-unprofessional-conduct/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20SectionsLaw Enforcement Will Receive Training on Dog Encountershttp://www.texastribune.org/2015/08/01/law-enforcement-will-receive-training-dog-encounte/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections
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<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.texastribune.org/31ways/84R?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"> <img id="project-logo" src="http://graphics.texastribune.org/graphics/31-days-31-ways-footer/assets/images/31days-logo-update2015-800x221.png" alt="31 Days 31 Ways" width="180" align="top" /> </a></p>
<p style="font-style: italic;">Throughout August, The Texas Tribune will feature 31 ways Texans' lives will change because of new laws that take effect Sept. 1. Check out our <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/31ways/84R/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">story calendar</a> for more.</p>
<p class="normal">One dark day has haunted Cindy Boling for more than three years.</p>
<p class="normal">On a May afternoon in 2012, a police officer responded to a call in Fort Worth. But he showed up in his patrol car at a wrong address. It was where Boling and her husband, Mark, lived with their two dogs, Gracie and Lily.</p>
<p class="normal">Lily, then a 6-year-old border collie, approached the officer. In a police report filed after the incident, the officer said he thought the dog was attacking him. Boling said Lily was just being friendly.</p>
<p class="normal">But the following is indisputable: The officer shot Lily, just 10 feet away from Boling, killing the dog instantly. A bullet ricocheted against the Bolings'&nbsp;house and a neighbor emerged, frantic that a person had been shot.</p>
<p class="normal">Lily "went up to him and we had no fear, no concern because it was a police officer,&rdquo; Boling said. &ldquo;It happened within just minutes, seconds.&rdquo;</p>
<p class="normal">This was one of about 280&nbsp;dog shootings that happened that year in Texas. In the past five years, more than 1,000 dogs have been shot by Texas law enforcement, according to data from the Texas Humane Legislation Network. Not all police departments keep track of canine shootings so an exact number cannot be easily determined.</p>
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<p class="normal">After the shooting, the Bolings learned there was no mandatory training for officers on how to handle interactions with dogs. They resolved to change that. Now, thanks to a law they pushed<strong>&nbsp;</strong>for, all law enforcement officers &mdash; from sheriffs to park rangers to police &mdash; will spend at least four hours in a classroom and interacting with dogs to learn how to peacefully handle encounters.</p>
<p class="normal">&ldquo;Instead of acting out of anger, they said, &lsquo;What can we do to prevent this from happening to another family?&rsquo;&rdquo; said Stacy Kerby, executive director of the Texas Humane Legislation Network.</p>
<p class="normal">Boling credits the network, a nonprofit that lobbies for legislation protecting animals from neglect and abuse, for taking the lead in getting<strong>&nbsp;</strong><a href="http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=84R&amp;Bill=HB593">House Bill 593</a>&nbsp;passed.</p>
<p class="normal">Rep. <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/nicole-collier/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">Nicole Collier</a>, D-Fort Worth, the measure's author, said more pets are being killed in confrontations that could be avoided if officers were better trained.</p>
<p class="normal">&ldquo;That's not the first type of response we want our peace offices to have when approaching a pet,&rdquo; Collier said.</p>
<p class="normal">The Legislature overwhelmingly passed the bill, and in May, Gov. <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/greg-abbott/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">Greg Abbott</a> signed it into law.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="normal">As directed by the law, the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement is developing a statewide training curriculum that will be mandatory for officers starting in January, said Gretchen Grigsby, director of government outreach for the organization.</p>
<p class="normal">While the program has not yet been finalized, training will consist of how officers should handle canine-related calls, anticipate unplanned encounters with dogs and use nonlethal methods to defend against an attack.</p>
<p class="normal">Most dog shootings happen because officers are either afraid of dogs or don&rsquo;t know how to read their signals, Kerby said. So it&rsquo;s hard for them to determine if a dog is acting aggressively.</p>
<p class="normal">&ldquo;Every time an officer pulls out his gun, there&rsquo;s always a chance,&rdquo; Kerby said. &ldquo;It shouldn&rsquo;t have to end in a canine fatality.&rdquo;</p>
<p class="normal">For members of<strong>&nbsp;</strong>the Simmons family, their story didn&rsquo;t end in the death of their German shepherd, Vinny. On Father&rsquo;s Day two years ago, an officer appeared at the house of Renata Simmons with an arrest warrant for a nearby neighbor. Vinny, then 4 years old, ran to greet the officer. Unable to tell if Vinny was attacking, the officer shot the dog in his neck.</p>
<p class="normal">Simmons rushed Vinny to an animal hospital, where we was treated and began a six-month recovery. Now, he&rsquo;s bounced back, Simmons said, although he still takes painkillers and goes to water therapy.</p>
<p class="normal">After the incident, Simmons joined Boling and the network, along with other victims of dog shootings, to push for officer training. And when the bill became law, both Simmons and Boling said they got closure.</p>
<p class="normal">For the first time in three years since the shooting happened, Boling said she started her mornings not thinking about Lily being killed.</p>
<p class="normal">"I could let go of my Lily," Boling said. "I could let her go. My heart became settled."</p>
<p class="normal"><em>Jeremy Lin contributed to this report.</em></p>
Liz CramptonSat, 01 Aug 2015 06:00:00 -0500http://www.texastribune.org/2015/08/01/law-enforcement-will-receive-training-dog-encounte/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20SectionsMcCraw Hammered at Hearing on Bland Casehttp://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/30/lawmakers-review-county-jail-procedures-following-/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections
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<p><sup>*Correction appended.</sup></p>
<p><sup>Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional comment.</sup></p>
<p>State lawmakers grilled Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw on Thursday, voicing concerns about arrest procedures used by the state police and pressing the agency head to explain the July 10 arrest of Sandra Bland, who was found hanged three days later in the Waller County Jail.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"I know the death happened in the jail, but the catalyst for the death clearly happened at the traffic stop," state Rep. state Rep. <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/garnet-coleman/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">Garnet Coleman</a>, D-Houston, told McCraw, who endured an hour-long interrogation from members of the Texas House Committee on County Affairs.&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">On July 10, state Trooper Brian Encinia pulled Bland over in Prairie View after she failed to use a turn signal before making a lane change. During the course of the traffic stop &mdash; recorded by a camera fastened to the officer's patrol car dashboard &mdash; Encinia is seen losing his temper once Bland questions why she should comply with his order to put out a cigarette and exit the vehicle. The trooper has since been placed on administrative duty until investigations into his actions and Bland's death are completed.&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">Video of Bland's traffic stop, released to the public a week ago on McCraw's order, shows the 28-year-old black woman exiting only after Encinia draws his Taser and threatens to "light" Bland up with it. A bystander's video which first brought national attention to Bland's arrest shows her handcuffed on the ground with Encinia standing over her.&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">Her arrest and July 13 death prompted Coleman, the committee chairman,&nbsp;to call a special hearing on jail standards and arrest procedures. After Brandon Wood the executive director of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, detailed how his tiny agency had little power other than to issue citations to county jails, McCraw was called before the committee, which seemed to unload on him the public's collective outrage about Bland's treatment by Encinia.</p>
<p class="js-tweet-text tweet-text with-linebreaks "><span>"What will you do to improve or do something about the training of the troopers? It's clear to me, or at least to most people that the trooper was a little aggressive," said Coleman, D-Houston. "</span>Tell him don't ever throw a black woman to the ground again."</p>
<p dir="ltr">For the most part, McCraw submitted to the dressing down by lawmakers, avoiding specific answers to questions about training that could reveal a deficiency in how troopers are groomed.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"At the conclusion of this investigation you will have the answers," McCraw told the committee.&nbsp;</span>He also expressed condolences to the Bland family and spoke of the "tragedy" of Bland's death.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="line-height: 1.35;">When Stickland pressed McCraw about why Encinia was still on the job, the</span><span style="line-height: 1.35;">&nbsp;DPS chief would only say that he didn't "prejudge any investigation."</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="line-height: 1.35;"><span>Stickland, a<span>&nbsp;known proponent of individual liberty and a fiscal conservative, hammered on Encinia's continued employment several times.&nbsp;</span></span></span></p>
<p dir="ltr">"Texas taxpayers are paying him," said state Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, visibly irritated. "For a lot of people it's pretty cut and dry what happened. Someone's liberties were stomped on."&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="line-height: 1.35;">McCraw conceded that Encinia was "rude" and had an opportunity to de-escalate during the course of Bland's arrest. "But he escalated."</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="line-height: 1.35;">As for Encinia's continued employment, McCraw would only say: "<span>We do have due process we have to deal with."</span></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="line-height: 1.35;">State Rep. <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/nicole-collier/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">Nicole Collier</a>, D-Fort Worth, who is not a member of the committee but was invited to sit in, asked McCraw where Bland's cell phone was at this time, and if there was a reason for her to be arrested in the first place. McCraw declined to answer, citing the pending criminal investigation into her death and the internal DPS review of Encinia's actions, which the agency has previously said violated traffic stop procedures.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr">Stickland tried to elicit some type of explanation of why so much of Bland's arrest took place outside the range of the dashboard camera, wryly speculating aloud that perhaps cameras should be attached to the right side of patrol cars. He also told McCraw there seems to be a tendency for law enforcement to lose control with members of the public when citizens like Bland assert their legal rights.&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="line-height: 1.35;"><span>"There seems to be a lack of respect when people assert their rights," he said.&nbsp;</span><br /></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="line-height: 1.35;">Stickland also said he was concerned that Waller County authorities were quick to release Bland's toxicology report, which indicated she had marijuana in her system at the time of her death. When the "heat is on," Stickland said it seems almost routine for law enforcement throw out anything in an attempt to discredit someone who died in their custody, no matter how much it violates their privacy.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="line-height: 1.35;">With such a disregard for private medical information, Stickland questioned whether inmates should provide such information to what he called a "common jailer." If he were arrested, Stickland said: "I ain't telling them nothing."</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="line-height: 1.35;">At the start of the hearing, lawmakers were told that a more&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.35;">thorough mental health evaluation and cell check procedure should have been done once Bland was brought to the Waller County Jail. If both had been done correctly,</span><span style="line-height: 1.35;">&nbsp;"it&nbsp;could have lessened the likelihood of this occurring, in my opinion," said Wood, executive director of the jail standards commission.&nbsp;</span></p>
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<p><span>According to Bland's&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/22/dps-sandra-bland-video-wasnt-doctored/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">booking documents</a><span>&nbsp;released a week ago, she told a jailer that she had attempted suicide in 2015 and had been depressed following the death of a baby. Complicating things is another form, in which Bland said she had not attempted suicide.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>The commission said it is already looking at ways to improve the mental health intake form used by county jails and creating an online course for jailers to help them make better mental health assessments of inmates.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>Correction: This story originally misattributed the quote, "I know the death happened in the jail, but the catalyst for the death clearly happened at the traffic stop," &nbsp;to state Rep. Jonathan Stickland. The statement was made by state Rep. Garnet Coleman.&nbsp;</em></p>
Terri Langford and Liz CramptonThu, 30 Jul 2015 19:00:24 -0500http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/30/lawmakers-review-county-jail-procedures-following-/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20SectionsMental Health Jail Check Failed in Bland Casehttp://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/30/texas-two-part-mental-health-jail-check-failed-san/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections
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<p><sup>* Editor's note: This story has been updated throughout.&nbsp;</sup></p>
<p>The Waller County Jail failed to complete a two-part mental health screening process required by state law during Sandra Bland's booking process, according to the state jail commission and at least one public policy group.</p>
<p>At a minimum, the 28-year-old who was found hanged in one of the jail's cells on July 13, three days after she was arrested and booked, should have received a court-ordered mental health exam once she indicated she had tried to commit suicide in the past, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards confirmed Wednesday.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>"The commission believes that at the very least, given what was on the screening form, the magistrate should have been notified," said Diana Spiller, a research analyst with the agency that oversees county jails in Texas.&nbsp;</p>
<p>A standard background check of state records for a history of mental health issues&nbsp;also failed in the Bland case, officials said. Although that process did not yield information about Bland, its failure concerns&nbsp;state officials who&nbsp;are trying to determine what happened. <span style="text-decoration: line-through;"><br /></span></p>
<p>On Thursday, the Texas House Committee on County Affairs will hold a<a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/28/coleman-calls-hearing-texas-jail-standards/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">&nbsp;hearing</a>&nbsp;to review mental health assessments, as well as overall county jail standards as a result of Bland's death.&nbsp;<strong>&nbsp;</strong></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;">Since 2007, in an attempt to better assess the mental health status of county jail inmates, sheriff's offices have been using two tools to assess those arrested.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;">The first is a mental health history questionnaire that jailers use when interviewing inmates during the booking process.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;">According to Bland's <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/22/dps-sandra-bland-video-wasnt-doctored/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">booking documents</a> released a week ago, she told a jailer that she had attempted suicide in 2015 and had been depressed following the death of a baby. Complicating things is another form, in which Bland said she had not attempted suicide.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;">Last week,&nbsp;</span>Capt. Brian Cantrell of the Waller County Sheriff's Office told The Texas Tribune that Bland was asked about her mental health at two different times during her booking and she answered two different ways.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, once Bland answered "yes" when asked about depression and attempted suicide, the jail should have&nbsp;notified a magistrate of the possible mental health issue under state law. The magistrate would then order a mental health professional to perform a more thorough exam. That did not occur.</p>
<p>The second check is done by computer. Along with<strong>&nbsp;</strong>checking an inmate's past criminal history, Texas jailers now perform what is known as a Continuity of Care Query, or CCQ, by searching the state's health department databases to determine if an inmate has received any Texas mental health services, either through the state psychiatric hospital system or as an outpatient at the 39 community mental health centers in the state.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>"These are the things that are supposed to happen each and every time," said Katharine Ligon,&nbsp;a <a href="http://bettertexasblog.org/2015/07/suicide-in-texas-jails-time-for-reform/">mental health policy analyst</a> with the Center for Public Policy Priorities, a liberal research group that&nbsp;promotes social and economic policies.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"From what I understand, this is where it broke down," Ligon said.</p>
<p>Waller County Jail officials did run a CCQ check on Bland shortly after she was brought into the facility on July 10. They informed the state commission it was done at 6:36 p.m. But they could not complete the query because of technical problems, they told the agency.&nbsp;</p>
<p><!--<!--StartFragment-->-->"This system was down and did not process a return," Waller County told the commission in an email. The check was eventually completed on July 13, at 9:16 a.m., after Bland was found hanged.</p>
<p>The Texas Department of Public Safety operates the computer network &mdash; known as the Texas Law Enforcement Telecommunication System, or TLETS &mdash; used to access the Texas Department of State Health Services mental service database. That system was working the day Bland was booked, said DPS spokesman Tom Vinger. &nbsp;<!--<!--EndFragment-->--></p>
<p><span>"We do not show that TLETS was down," Vinger said. "In fact, we show several transactions from the Waller County Sheriff&rsquo;s Office over TLETS that day."</span></p>
<p>Whether the problem might have occurred at the state health department is being researched, a spokeswoman told the Tribune.</p>
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<p>After Bland's death, the CCQ showed she had never used any public mental health services in Texas. But the health department is reviewing why Waller County officials were not able to process the CCQ when she was booked into the jail.<span style="line-height: 1.35;">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;">"We're looking into whether there was an issue on our end," said Carrie Williams, a DSHS spokeswoman.</span></p>
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<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;">Bland was arrested for allegedly striking DPS trooper Brian Encinia after he pulled her over for failing to signal before changing lanes in Prairie View on July 10. Her death three days later has been ruled a suicide by the Harris County medical examiner but is being investigated by the Texas Rangers, and all findings will be presented to a Waller County grand jury next month.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;">Video of the traffic stop has sparked outrage worldwide. On it, Encinia loses his temper when Bland refuses to exit the vehicle and comply with his request to put out her cigarette. He has been reassigned to desk duty pending an internal review of his actions, which DPS has said violated agency procedures. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;">Questions emailed to the Waller County Sheriff's Office, which oversees the 110-person jail, about mental health protocol were not immediately answered on Wednesday.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>After Bland's death, the jail commission cited Waller County when it could not produce evidence that jailers had each taken two hours of mental health training, a component of the jail's suicide prevention plan filed with the agency into 2010.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;"><em>Disclosure: The Center for Public Policy Priorities is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune.&nbsp;A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed&nbsp;<a href="http://www.texastribune.org/support-us/donors-and-members/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">here</a>.</em></span></p>
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Terri LangfordThu, 30 Jul 2015 06:00:00 -0500http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/30/texas-two-part-mental-health-jail-check-failed-san/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20SectionsLegal Experts Question State's Immunity Claimhttp://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/29/legal-experts-case-against-dshs-should-move-forwar/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections
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<p>The state of Texas can't hide behind sovereign immunity to escape a lawsuit for denying birth certificates to U.S. citizen children of undocumented immigrants,&nbsp;the director of the University of Texas' Transnational Worker Rights Clinic said Tuesday.</p>
<p>That state's claim of immunity is mere "boilerplate," said Bill Beardall, who also serves as executive director of the Equal Justice Center, and the lawsuit against&nbsp;the Department of State Health Services should&nbsp;proceed.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The state filed a standard boilerplate response that states and state officials always file in these lawsuits,&rdquo; Beardall said.&nbsp;&ldquo;This is a form of discrimination.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The agency was sued in May by a group of undocumented immigrants whose children have not been issued birth certificates even though they&nbsp;were&nbsp;born in Texas and hold U.S. citizenship. The families claim&nbsp;the state has violated the 14th Amendment&rsquo;s Equal Protection Clause because it stopped accepting&nbsp;consular IDs and foreign passports as proof of the parents&rsquo; identities.&nbsp;</p>
<p>In a response last week, Attorney General <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/ken-paxton/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">Ken Paxton</a> argued that the agency enjoys&nbsp;sovereign immunity under the 11th Amendment and cannot be sued in federal court.<span style="text-decoration: line-through;"><br /></span></p>
<p>A spokesperson for the DSHS referred all inquiries to the attorney general&rsquo;s office, which declined comment&nbsp;because the case is ongoing.<span style="text-decoration: line-through;"><br /></span></p>
<p>Attorneys for the plaintiffs are preparing their response,&nbsp;and predict&nbsp;more plaintiffs will join the lawsuit. The suit was amended in June and now includes 17 families, but that number could&nbsp;grow by eight or 10, attorney Efren Olivares said.</p>
<p>&ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t the first time a state has been sued for violating the federal Constitution, so there are arguments and case law that support the possibility of suing the state,&rdquo; he said.<span style="text-decoration: line-through;"><br /></span></p>
<p>While some sovereignty&nbsp;claims&nbsp;have merit, Beardall said, U.S. Supreme Court case law includes precedents that private parties can sue state officials in their official capacities to enforce federal rights.<strong>&nbsp;</strong></p>
<p>Michael Gerhardt, a professor of constitutional law at the University of North Carolina&rsquo;s School of Law, said states often reply to lawsuits with an 11th Amendment argument.&nbsp;&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t necessarily mean it&rsquo;s illegitimate, but it also doesn&rsquo;t necessarily have merit,&rdquo; he said.</p>
<p>Instead, it could be a part of what he calls the state&rsquo;s &ldquo;rich judicial history&rdquo; that could influence how the case moves forward. He cites specifically Plyler v. Doe, the case where the Texas Legislature&rsquo;s attempt to deny undocumented students access to public education was rejected by the Supreme Court. In essence, Gerhardt said, the court decided that the children should be admitted and not punished based on something their parents had done.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not hard to extrapolate from that that someone born in this country [is] going to be, presumably, a U.S. citizen,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In this case you&rsquo;re talking about a federal right, and states cannot deny a federal right.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
Julián AguilarWed, 29 Jul 2015 06:00:00 -0500http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/29/legal-experts-case-against-dshs-should-move-forwar/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20SectionsBland Arrest, Death Prompt Legislative Hearinghttp://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/28/coleman-calls-hearing-texas-jail-standards/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections
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<p>Following the controversial arrest and death of Sandra Bland in Waller County, a Houston lawmaker will convene a Texas House committee hearing Thursday to look at trooper arrest procedures and state jail standards.&nbsp;</p>
<p><!--<!--StartFragment-->-->"This isn't to beat up on somebody," said state Rep. <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/garnet-coleman/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">Garnet Coleman</a>, chairman of the Texas House <a href="http://www.house.state.tx.us/committees/committee/?committee=210">Committee on County Affairs</a>. "We want to solve problems."&nbsp;<!--<!--EndFragment-->--></p>
<p>Texas Department of Public Safety Director <a href="http://www.txdirectory.com/online/person/?id=24501">Steve McCraw</a> has confirmed he will testify at the hearing, along with<a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2010/12/16/sheriffs-worry-over-proposed-mental-health-cuts/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"> Limestone County Sheriff Dennis Wilson</a>, who has for years voiced concerns about problems facing Texas jails. Brandon Wood, executive director of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, the agency that oversees local lockups, will also testify.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith has been invited and may attend.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Coleman said he called the hearing following Bland's July 10 arrest for a minor traffic violation and death by hanging three days later in the Waller County Jail, about 50 miles northwest of Houston.</p>
<p>"<span style="line-height: 1.35;">I still can't figure out how someone gets pulled over and gets stopped for changing lanes and ends up dead," Coleman said. "It doesn't make any sense."</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;"><span style="line-height: 1.35;">Bland, a </span><span style="line-height: 1.35;">28-year-old African-American woman from Chicago, was taking a new job at her alma mater, Prairie View A&amp;M University, when she was stopped by DPS Trooper Brian Encinia near the entrance of the historically black college.&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.35;">Dashboard camera </span><a style="line-height: 1.35;" href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/21/dash-cam-video-shows-sandra-blands-arrest/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">video of Bland's arrest</a><span style="line-height: 1.35;"> was released last week, sparking worldwide outrage.</span></span></p>
<p>In the video, Encinia is shown losing his temper with Bland, who refused to comply with his orders to get out of the vehicle and put out her cigarette. Encinia is seen on the video threatening to "light her up" with a Taser and then arresting her for attacking him, a public servant. Three days later she was found hanged in her cell with a trash can liner. The death, ruled a suicide by the Harris County medical examiner, <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/27/sandra-bland-da-appoints-shadow-team-review-eviden/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">will be presented to grand jury </a>next month.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Booking documents indicate Bland told jail personnel she had epilepsy and was taking the anti-seizure drug Keppra and had attempted suicide before. <a href="http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/article/Waller-DA-releases-more-jail-footage-medication-6410401.php"><em>The Houston Chronicle</em> reported late Tuesday </a>that Bland was not taking Keppra at the time of her death. Doctors warn epilepsy patients that they must gradually reduce their dosages before changing or stopping medication. And Keppra, like many other anti-seizure drugs, comes with serious side effects. According to the Waller County Jail's medication purchase documents, Bland requested the pain reliever Aleve twice. She did not request any other medications.</p>
<p>A preliminary toxicology report released on Monday indicates she had marijuana in her bloodstream when she died.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;">"As of today, I cannot confirm if she did or did not receive medication while she was in the Waller County Jail,"&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.35;">Capt. Brian Cantrell of the Waller County Sheriff's Office told The Texas Tribune on Monday.</span></p>
Terri LangfordTue, 28 Jul 2015 19:15:22 -0500http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/28/coleman-calls-hearing-texas-jail-standards/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20SectionsBesieged County Officials Release More Tapeshttp://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/28/outside-group-tapped-review-waller-county-sheriffs/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections
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<p>Trying to dispel rumors that they covered up the real circumstances of Sandra Bland's death, Waller County law enforcement officials took the unusual step Tuesday of releasing video of her booking into jail after her arrest July 10.</p>
<p>The county has been deluged with death threats &mdash; and targeted in a cyber attack allegedly launched by the clandestine social activist group Anonymous &mdash; as rumors have gone viral on the internet claiming Bland was dead at the time her mug shot was taken, well before she was found hanged in her cell on July 13 in an apparent suicide.</p>
<p>&ldquo;You will see video here today that shows she was alive and well when the mug shot was taken," said Waller County Judge Carbett &ldquo;Trey&rdquo; J. Duhon.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mj2wExO3j_o" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe></p>
<p>The video, which documents the four-hour booking process and Bland's first appearance before a magistrate, was played for reporters in Hempstead as Duhon and Waller County Sheriff's Office Capt. Brian Cantrell explained what was happening.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"We're doing this because we've received death threats," Duhon said. &ldquo;I wish it could have gone out earlier and maybe we wouldn&rsquo;t be facing some of those threats.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Duhon said county officials opted to release the booking video three days after Anonymous, a loose but dedicated network of computer programmers, released a video calling upon citizens worldwide to organize a "Day of Rage" on Aug. 8 for Bland.</p>
<p>&ldquo;This county is being literally attacked. We are being cyber-attacked," Duhon said.</p>
<p>Worldwide outrage has poured onto social media outlets since Bland's death, the latest in a string of police custody deaths involving black Americans this year.</p>
<p>Bland, a 28-year-old African-American woman from Chicago, was arrested July 10 outside her alma mater Prairie View A&amp;M University, 50 miles northwest of Houston, following a traffic stop for an improper lane change. She was moving back to Texas to start a new job at the college on Aug. 3.</p>
<p>The Anonymous video highlighted what the group sees as inconsistencies in local officials' statements about the circumstances surrounding Bland's death. Anonymous has insisted Bland was dead at the time her mug shot was taken, a belief apparently shared by members of the public who have taken to social media since Bland's body was discovered.&nbsp;</p>
<p>As a result, Waller County offices and staff have been threatened and staff computers hacked, Duhon said. The county has shut down its telephone switchboards several times in the past week because of death threats.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It is important that we release this information because we have received death threats against Waller County officials," Duhon said. "We have received threats against our facilities.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Duhon said the threats reached such a level that by late Monday, Waller County officials decided to release the jail booking video after discovering that they could make copies from the internal digital recording system that the jail uses. Earlier attempts to do so had failed, Duhon said.</p>
<p>&ldquo;When it comes to correct information, social media cannot be relied upon," Duhon told reporters.</p>
<p>In the booking video, Bland is seen wearing a long dress waiting on a bench as she is handed off to jail officials for processing. Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Brian Encinia, the officer who arrested Band, is seen signing Bland's arresting paperwork.</p>
<p>A dashboard camera video of Bland's arrest taken from Encinia's patrol car was released a week ago. In that video, Encinia can be seen losing his temper after Bland refuses to comply with orders to get out of her car and put out her cigarette.</p>
<p>Encinia arrested Bland on a charge of attacking a public servant, claiming Bland kicked him during the arrest. Three days after she was taken to jail, she was found hanged with a plastic trashcan liner used as a ligature. Encinia was reassigned to desk duties pending an internal DPS investigation of his actions. As of Tuesday, he remained employed, working at DPS regional office in Houston.</p>
<p>Although her death was ruled a suicide by the Harris County medical examiner's office, Waller County is investigating all possibilities for her death, including murder. The Texas Rangers and the FBI also are investigating Bland's death.</p>
<p>The booking video also shows Bland going into another room to change into a jail inmate uniform of orange scrubs, being issued a mattress, being led to a camera for her mug shot and having her fingerprints taken. Bland remained in jail for three days because she could not raise $500 needed to secure her release.</p>
<p>"I truly wish she had bonded out," Duhon said.</p>
<p>On the video, Bland is seen making a handful of phone calls, using the jail staff's telephone instead of the inmate phone system that would have billed the recipient of the jail call.</p>
<p>Capt. Brian Cantrell of the Waller County Sheriff's Office told reporters that jail staff felt sorry for Bland and let her use their desk phone. Cantrell said Bland spent 22 minutes on at least four calls. He said he did not know why she refused the inmate jail phone system, other than to speculate that she might have been trying to save the person on the other end money.</p>
<p>"It is absolutely without a doubt a tragic situation," Duhon said, adding that Bland's family, who have retained a lawyer, were no longer communicating with authorities.</p>
<p>On Monday, Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis tapped two Houston lawyers &mdash; Darrell Jordan and Lewis White &mdash; to review evidence compiled in the wake of the Bland's death.</p>
<p>Also, a second outside team has been named to look at the policy and procedures of the Waller County Sheriff's Office, which manages the Waller County Jail.</p>
<p>"The only thing we expect to do is make suggestions as to how law enforcement can more effectively do their job without losing respect from the public," said Paul Looney, an attorney with offices in Hempstead and Houston. Looney helped form the group that will include former U.S. Rep. Craig Washington; Morris Overstreet, a former Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judge; JoAnne Musick, former president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association; and civil rights attorney Randall Kallinen.</p>
<p>The group's first meeting is on Friday, Looney said, and none of the members will be paid.</p>
<p>Looney's law firm lists Duhon as "of counsel," meaning that he works on some cases with Looney's law firm and vice versa, but he rejected any notion that that connection represents any conflict of interest.</p>
<p>"There's some group that think it is," Looney said. "They don't know me very well. I put it all together, but I don't have a vote."</p>
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Terri Langford and Sophia BollagTue, 28 Jul 2015 17:56:20 -0500http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/28/outside-group-tapped-review-waller-county-sheriffs/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20SectionsGrand Jury Looming, Paxton Assails Prosecutorshttp://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/28/grand-jury-looming-paxtons-team-and-prosecutors-sp/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections
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<p>A grand jury will soon decide whether Texas Attorney General <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/ken-paxton/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">Ken Paxton</a> should be indicted for securities fraud, but the battle for public opinion is already kicking into high gear.</p>
<p>A Collin County grand jury is expected to begin hearing evidence against Paxton soon. It remains unclear when the grand jury will start meeting, but local media on Tuesday spotted special prosecutors assigned to the case entering a Collin County courthouse with the Texas Rangers, who have been looking into Paxton's self-admitted violation of the state securities law last year. &nbsp;</p>
<p>In recent days, Paxton spokesman Anthony Holm has sharpened his criticism of the process, arguing that meddling by an outside lawyer has rendered impartiality "impossible." Holm has also criticized the special prosecutors, Houston attorneys Kent Schaffer and Brian Wice, as loose-lipped publicity hounds who lack the experience to handle such a high-profile prosecution.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span>"Normally, seasoned prosecutors are appointed to aid investigations," Holm wrote in an op-ed for the <em>Austin American-Statesman&nbsp;</em>published Monday. "Instead, these two defense lawyers have built incredibly lucrative practices defending people charged with crimes, including drug and child sex crimes &mdash; the very type of criminal Attorney General Paxton tries to put in prison. One wonders about the impartiality of the appointed special prosecutors when their trade is defending those charged with the most heinous of crimes."</span></p>
<p><span>Schaffer and Wice issued their own statement Tuesday pushing back on Holm's op-ed.</span></p>
<p>"We knew when we were appointed by a Republican judge in one of the most conservative counties in Texas to investigate Mr. Paxton for securities fraud, that we would become the target of personal attacks on our character, reputation and experience," the prosecutors said in a statement. "With his non-stop salvos of half-truths, untruths, and borderline-comical sound bites castigating us &mdash; and by extension, the Texas Rangers, whose invaluable assistance has been essential to our investigation &mdash; for doing the job we were tasked with, Mr. Paxton&rsquo;s PR proxy has not disappointed us."</p>
<p>"Mr. Paxton&rsquo;s spinmeister can run, but can&rsquo;t hide, from the unrelenting fact that the full, fair, and non-partisan grand jury investigation we have conducted is not about our character and reputation as defense attorneys or our experience as prosecutors," Schaffer and Wice added. "It is, instead, solely about whether there is probable cause to believe that Mr. Paxton has engaged in conduct constituting felony violations of the State Securities Act."</p>
<p>Wice, a commentator for a Houston TV station, specifically responded to Holm's suggestion that he was the "Geraldo Rivera of Houston," quipping that "apparently the 'Bill Cosby of Houston' was taken."</p>
<p>The back-and-forth is playing out as Paxton's legal troubles take a turn for the serious. Earlier this month, Schaffer said he and Wice would be "<span>pursuing an indictment for first-degree felony securities fraud" against Paxton.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;">At the time &mdash; July 1 &mdash; Schaffer said the grand jury would begin meeting in less than a month. Wice declined to say Monday when exactly the grand jury would convene, and a spokesman for Paxton lawyer Joe Kendall did not have an immediate answer Tuesday.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;">WFAA reported that Schaffer and Wice "<span>were seen entering the Collin County Courthouse Tuesday morning, along with the Texas Rangers." Schaffer would not comment to the Dallas-area TV station about whether they were there in connection with grand jury.&nbsp;</span><br /></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;"><span>Little is known about what exactly the prosecutors plan to present to the grand jury. Their findings stem from investigators' probe of&nbsp;<span>Paxton's admission last year&nbsp;</span><span>that he&nbsp;</span><span>solicited investment clients for a friend and business partner without properly registering with the state. He was reprimanded&nbsp;and fined $1,000 by the State Securities Board.</span></span></span></p>
<p>Holm has long maintained the legal drama is politically motivated and more recently suggested that a lawyer unrelated to the situation might have tainted the jury by circulating information about Paxton. The lawyer, Ty Clevenger, denied Monday that he did anything wrong, accusing Holm of looking to "<span>preemptively smear the people who are trying to uphold the law."</span></p>
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Patrick SvitekTue, 28 Jul 2015 15:35:26 -0500http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/28/grand-jury-looming-paxtons-team-and-prosecutors-sp/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20SectionsDetained Immigrant Families Face Uncertaintyhttp://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/28/despite-judges-ruling-questions-remain-detained-im/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections
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<p>More than 2,000 undocumented women and children being held in "deplorable" conditions at federal immigration detention centers are supposed to be released under a recent federal judge's order. But how long that takes and what happens to them next remains unclear, attorneys say.</p>
<p>Late Friday, U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee admonished the Obama administration for detaining thousands of undocumented immigrants from Central America in violation of a 1997&nbsp;legal<strong>&nbsp;</strong>settlement requiring&nbsp;that undocumented&nbsp;juveniles be<strong>&nbsp;</strong>held in the&nbsp; &ldquo;least restrictive setting appropriate to their age and special needs to ensure their protection and wellbeing,&rdquo; according to an analysis by the <a href="http://immigrantchildren.org/Flores_Case.html">Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law</a>.</p>
<p>Gee ordered that the women and children detained in Karnes City and Dilley, Texas, be released as soon as possible. (A smaller facility in Pennsylvania is also being used.) The administration has until Monday to respond to Gee&rsquo;s order, and 90 days to appeal her ruling.<span style="text-decoration: line-through;"><br /></span></p>
<p><span><span>&ldquo;We are disappointed with the court&rsquo;s decision and are reviewing it in consultation with the Department of Justice,&rdquo;</span>&nbsp;the Department of Homeland Security&nbsp;said in a statement on Friday.<span style="text-decoration: line-through;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p><span>The agency didn&rsquo;t respond to a follow-up email asking how the agency planned to move forward,&nbsp;or whether the families, if released, would be required to wear electronic monitoring devices or be released on bond.&nbsp;For now, attorneys working to free the immigrants say their job is far from over.<strong><br /></strong></span></p>
<p>"[We] will keep sending lawyers down to Texas until they are not needed anymore,&rdquo; said Rachel B. Tiven, the executive director of the New York-based <span>Immigrant Justice Corps</span>, which recruits and trains attorneys to handle pro bono immigration cases.&nbsp;<span>The IJC has trained 35 attorneys who rotate in<strong>&nbsp;</strong>two-weeks shifts in Dilley and Karnes. Thirty-five more will begin their rotations in September.</span></p>
<p>&ldquo;We need to see that 4-year-olds and their mothers are not in jail in South Texas before we stop,&rdquo; Tiven said.</p>
<p>Tiven and her colleagues want to ensure the families are given clear explanations of&nbsp;their rights once released. Undocumented immigrants face a number of options &mdash; and punishments &mdash; as they move forward with their cases. Pursuing legal status can range from seeking asylum to requesting that a case be administratively closed, also known as prosecutorial discretion.&nbsp;</p>
<p>In a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Sarah Salda&ntilde;a dated July 27, CARA,&nbsp;a coalition of members from&nbsp;the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.raicestexas.org/" target="_blank">Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="https://cliniclegal.org/" target="_blank">Catholic Legal Immigration Network</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/" target="_blank">American Immigration Council</a>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.aila.org/">American Immigration Lawyers Association</a>, reiterated its request that ICE offer daily&nbsp;briefings&nbsp;to the women before&nbsp;they&nbsp;are&nbsp;released.</p>
<p>"The purpose of such presentations would be to explain reporting obligations, the importance of appearing for all scheduled appearances, the need to file an asylum application in advance of the one-year filing deadline, the individuals&rsquo; rights and obligations, and how to connect with pro bono attorneys in their cities of destination," the coalition wrote.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Unlike the criminal justice system, in which defendants are guaranteed counsel if they can&rsquo;t afford it, immigrants in detention are not afforded that right.&nbsp;And even with an attorney, getting legal advice isn&rsquo;t guaranteed.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Lawyers can&rsquo;t get access to their clients in a regular way, and women are being released without legal information they need about what their supposed to do next,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Women are still in jeopardy of being treated unfairly.&rdquo;</p>
<p>She said she&rsquo;s heard reports of women being told they &ldquo;absolutely&rdquo; have to wear an ankle monitor despite having an order from a judge that says they don&rsquo;t have to.</p>
<p>&ldquo;They are really being intimidated,&rdquo; she said.</p>
<p>But even limited access can mean a world of difference. Immigrants with attorneys are five times more likely to win an asylum case or another judgment allowing them to remain in the country legally compared with those without legal help,&nbsp;according to the IJC website.</p>
<p>The detention centers were created in response to a surge of undocumented immigrants who flooded the Rio Grande Valley last summer. About 50,000&nbsp;<a href="http://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-border-unaccompanied-children-2014">unaccompanied children</a>&nbsp;were caught or surrendered to border agents in the Rio Grande Valley sector in fiscal year 2014,&nbsp;and overall about 68,600 unaccompanied minors were apprehended along the southwest border. And about 68,400 family units were apprehended in 2014 on the southwest border, including about 52,300 in the Rio Grande Valley.&nbsp;</p>
Julián AguilarTue, 28 Jul 2015 06:00:00 -0500http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/28/despite-judges-ruling-questions-remain-detained-im/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20SectionsSandra Bland DA Appoints Team to Review Evidencehttp://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/27/sandra-bland-da-appoints-shadow-team-review-eviden/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections
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<p>The prosecutor in the Sandra Bland death investigation said Monday he has appointed an outside group of lawyers to review the evidence in the case to ensure that Waller County remains "an open book."</p>
<p><span>Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis also released the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences' toxicology report on Bland without commenting on it. The report showed that Bland had marijuana in her bloodstream at the time of her death.</span></p>
<p>"<span style="line-height: 1.35;">It is important for this county and for this investigation and any subsequent prosecution that it be based on credible evidence and not rumors,</span>" Mathis said.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;">The committee members &mdash;&nbsp;Houston attorneys Lewis White and Darrell Jordan are the only two named so far &mdash;&nbsp;will be able to independently&nbsp;examine all evidence Mathis' office is reviewing.</span></p>
<p>"There are many questions regarding the death of Sandra Bland, and I&rsquo;ve asked Mr. White and Mr. Jordan to assist me asking those hard questions and making sure they are answered timely and appropriately as the evidence takes shape and is presented to my office," Mathis said.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;">Bland, 28, was </span><a style="line-height: 1.35;" href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/24/officials-release-sandra-bland-autopsy-report/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">found hanged in the Waller County Jail</a><span style="line-height: 1.35;"> on July 13, three days after she was arrested following a traffic stop in Prairie View, about 50 miles northeast of Houston.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>A video of that traffic stop released last week showed Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Brian Encinia quickly losing his temper with an irritated&nbsp;Bland, ordering her to get out of her car and, when she failed to do so, threatening to use a Taser on her, promising to "light you up" if she did not comply.</p>
<p>Since then, the case, the latest in a string of incidents involving police harassment and brutality this year, has gained worldwide attention.&nbsp;</p>
<p>A medical examiner in neighboring Harris County has already ruled Bland's death a suicide by hanging.&nbsp;Mathis plans to take Bland's death to a grand jury regardless.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>Sophia Bollag contributed to this story.&nbsp;</em></p>
Terri LangfordMon, 27 Jul 2015 12:25:40 -0500http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/27/sandra-bland-da-appoints-shadow-team-review-eviden/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20SectionsTexas State Digs Up Forensic Advances From the Gravehttp://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/25/texas-body-farm-research-uses-corpses-solve-crimes/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections
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<p>SAN MARCOS &mdash; A drone flew over the sprawling hills of Freeman Ranch about&nbsp;two years ago, capturing a monochromatic photograph. The gray landscape was grass and dirt and the white spots denoted excessive vegetation. The black flecks were decomposing corpses.</p>
<p>It was exactly the picture that Daniel Wescott, a forensic anthropologist, and&nbsp;<span>Gene Robinson, the owner of a&nbsp;search and rescue organization, </span>were looking for to prove their suspicions that a plane equipped with the right technology could locate the dead.</p>
<p>&ldquo;We just had one of those eureka moments,&rdquo; said Robinson, who is based in Wimberley. &ldquo;We can put these two things together and suddenly we have a forensic tool.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The ranch is home to about 50 human corpses donated to the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State University, which uses them to conduct research&nbsp;that can help medical examiners identify bodies, rescuers find missing persons and law enforcement solve crimes.</p>
<p>Dead bodies are peppered across Texas State&rsquo;s gated 26 acres on Freeman Ranch. Some are completely decayed down to bones loosely covered by tan, leathery skin, while more recent arrivals resemble the living except&nbsp;for the swollen flesh and colonies of flies laying eggs in facial orifices.</p>
<p>Wescott is the director of the center, known informally as a &ldquo;body farm." He helps design many of the research projects in the hopes that by controlling the conditions the body decomposes in &mdash; and knowing the biological facts of the person who died &mdash; the studies can offer insight on murders or unexplained deaths when much less information is available.</p>
<p>The drone flights are part of an ongoing study using near infrared imaging to detect corpses above and below the ground that are often not visible to the naked eye. The technology can also spot locations where a corpse was previously buried for up to two years after it has been removed.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The search for clandestine bodies is a very time-consuming ordeal,&rdquo; Wescott said. &ldquo;Even then, a lot of times&nbsp;you can walk right by them and not realize that they&rsquo;re there.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Near infrared imaging picks up reflectance; as a corpse decays it releases carbon and nitrogen into the soil, decreasing the amount of light the soil reflects. At first, the influx of chemicals kills plants, but as it disperses into the area around the body it turns into a fertilizer causing extra vegetation, which reflects a lot of light.</p>
<p>The two extremes show up as black and white on the mostly gray near infrared imaging, giving anyone looking for a body, Robinson said, double the chances of finding of it.</p>
<p>The Texas State labs, which opened in 2008, are constantly churning out research. The placement and conditions of the bodies are purposeful; many are protected by metal-pole cages, but those that aren&rsquo;t resemble a collection of scattered bones, pillaged by vultures and raccoons. Corpses are above and below ground as well as in both the sun and shade to compare the decay of each. Some bodies are wrapped tightly in tarp, part of a new study that will look at the rate of decay for a common modus operandi of disposal for murders.</p>
<p>The center grabbed national attention recently when it collected the remains of 80 undocumented immigrants who died after crossing the border. Found in a mass grave in Brooks County, the bodies were <a href="http://www.caller.com/news/local-news/immigration/mass-graves-of-migrants-found-in-falfurrias_23365419">buried</a>&nbsp;haphazardly, some covered only by trash bags and shopping bags.</p>
<p>Kate Spradley, a researcher and associate professor of anthropology at Texas State, leads a team working to identify the immigrants and send their remains home. The work is slow, and so far the team has confirmed three identities.</p>
<p>But Spradley&rsquo;s research on ancestry estimation using skeletal measurements could help. After collecting data from Mexicans and Guatemalans, she found they had, on average, slight variations in skull shape &mdash; for example, different measurements in the face or in the back of the head. She is working to expand the database to include those from Honduras and El Salvador &mdash; where many Texas immigrants originate &mdash; which could make identifying remains much more expedient.</p>
<p>&ldquo;If I&rsquo;m writing a case report, this person would likely be considered Hispanic, but working on the border, that really is kind of meaningless," Spradley said. "I&rsquo;m still trying to amass a lot of data from different countries &hellip; that really narrows the search.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Another research project focuses on predatory birds common in arid climates. The center&rsquo;s 2012 study on vultures greatly helped medical examiners gauge the time of death and better identify an unknown corpse, said Jennifer Love, who met with the center&rsquo;s researchers when she was the director of forensic anthropology for the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences. The research brought forward crucial information: Vultures can render a body into a skeleton in a matter of hours &mdash; a time frame previously estimated to be weeks.</p>
<p>&ldquo;There are a lot of people who have gone missing,&rdquo; said Love, who now works as a forensic anthropologist in Washington, D.C. "If we&rsquo;re saying, &lsquo;Okay, an individual has to be dead for at least three weeks&rsquo; but in fact has only been dead a day, then we are excluding the person who may actually be the match.&rdquo;</p>
<p>At the ranch, corpses lay out in the field for a time period of six months to two years. But much of the research takes place post-decomposition on the skeletons, which are carefully stored in boxes that line the walls of the Texas State labs. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>These studies typically involve using bones to determine the sex, age and time elapsed since the person died. One graduate student is working on a project that uses only teeth to determine the season of death. Each permanent tooth is anchored to gums twice a year by tiny, distinct fibers; a bright line is laid in the spring or summer and a dark line in the fall or winter. The number of bands, and the color and width of the outermost one, can help estimate the age at death and&nbsp;<span>when a person died.</span></p>
<p>Texas State researchers meet with law enforcement and forensic professionals to create research plans with clear practical uses. The center also has done corpse tests for defense attorneys and consulted for the FBI, Wescott said.</p>
<p>To share its research, the center hosts workshops for anthropology students, police and medical examiners, who get a tour of the ranch and&nbsp;learn tools to evaluate corpses at crime scenes. When Sgt. Sam Stock from the Hays County Sheriff's Office visited about 18 months ago, he learned to study the insect infestation surrounding a corpse.</p>
<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a viable piece of evidence in a potential homicide,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;How far the larvae has developed can give an idea of potentially how long a body has been there. Before, maggots on a body were normal. Nobody really paid attention to it.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The sheer number of corpses available at the center means its researchers have the resources they need to pull together experiments and the statistical analysis to be confident in the results. Besides the San Marcos ranch, there are a handful of body farms scattered across the United States, including another in Texas at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, one at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, and another at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina.</p>
<p>The first body farm was founded in the early 1980s at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville by William Bass, a Tennessee state forensic anthropologist. Frustrated by the difficulty of estimating the time of death on a recovered body, Bass began to collect donated corpses for research.</p>
<p>Each center provides research on decomposition with the climate, animals and insects common to its region. Texas State, with its location in an arid climate, makes key discoveries on how extreme heat and vultures can speed up or slow down the decay of a human body.</p>
<p>&ldquo;We wouldn&rsquo;t know that&nbsp;if other centers like Texas hadn&rsquo;t opened,&rdquo; Dawnie Steadman, director of Tennessee&rsquo;s Forensic Anthropology Center, said of the Texas State body farm. &ldquo;We need data and understanding of what&rsquo;s going in human decomposition in multiple environments.&rdquo;</p>
<p><i style="line-height: 1.35;">See more photos of the body farm <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/25/slideshow-body-farm/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">here</a> (warning: some pictures are graphic and show decomposing corpses).</i></p>
<p><i style="line-height: 1.35;">Disclosure: The Texas State University System is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune.&nbsp;</i><i style="line-height: 1.35;">A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed&nbsp;</i><a style="line-height: 1.35;" href="http://www.texastribune.org/support-us/donors-and-members/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"><i>here</i></a><i style="line-height: 1.35;">.</i></p>
Ally MutnickSat, 25 Jul 2015 06:00:00 -0500http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/25/texas-body-farm-research-uses-corpses-solve-crimes/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20SectionsAG's Office Probing Valley Election Fraud Claimshttp://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/24/lawyer-ags-office-probing-election-contest-in/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections
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<p>The Texas attorney general's office has opened an investigation into a contested election in the Rio Grande Valley won by a client of Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa two years ago, according to a lawyer for the losing candidate.</p>
<p>Houston attorney Jerad Najvar said Thursday that Attorney General <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/ken-paxton/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">Ken Paxton</a>'s office is acting on a criminal complaint filed by his client, Letty Lopez. She lost to Lupe Rivera, Hinojosa's client, by 16 votes in a November 2013 election for a spot on the Weslaco City Commission.</p>
<p>More than a year ago, a visiting judge ruled that some of the votes for Rivera were illegally cast and ordered a new election held as soon as possible, according to local media. Legal wrangling has kept the new election from taking place, and Rivera has remained in office while Hinojosa has defended him in court.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;">In an interview Friday, Hinojosa said he had no comment about the investigation but questioned the motivations of Najvar, a prominent Republican lawyer who specializes in campaign finance and political law. The case has no doubt provided fodder to the Texas GOP, which has latched on to reports of corruption in the Valley to accuse Democrats of hypocrisy on voting rights.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>Lopez's challenge made its way to the attorney general's office via the secretary of state's office, with which she first filed a complaint alleging voter fraud in the original election.&nbsp;In a letter dated May 13, the secretary of state's office asked the attorney general's office to get involved, saying Lopez's complaint "demonstrates that it is likely unlawful voting occurred."</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">&ldquo;After review of the submitted documentation, we believe the information regarding offenses warrants a submission for criminal investigation to the Texas Attorney General as the specific allegations described involve potential misdemeanor and felony offenses," Keith Ingram, director of elections in the secretary of state's office, wrote to David Maxwell, Paxton's director of law enforcement.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>Asked about the investigation earlier this month, a Paxton spokeswoman would neither confirm nor deny it.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><span style="line-height: 1.35;">Hinojosa's involvement in the election contest has become a focus of the Republican Party of Texas and the Republican National Committee. Both organizations have used it against Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, who delivered a speech last month in Houston that called voter fraud a "phantom epidemic."&nbsp;</span></span></p>
<p><span>"The fact that Chairman Hinojosa would spend nearly two years executing a legal strategy that disenfranchises voters, while at the same time possibly profiting off of voter fraud is reprehensible,&rdquo; Texas GOP spokesman Aaron Whitehead said in a statement. &ldquo;</span><span>It is certainly Chairman Hinojosa&rsquo;s right to make a mockery of the Texas Democratic Party, however Texans deserve better than the leader of a political party making a mockery out of our electoral process."</span></p>
<p><span>The Texas Democratic Party fired back Friday, bringing up a part of the state GOP platform that calls for the repeal of the federal Voting Rights Act. Manny Garica, deputy executive director of the Texas Democratic Party, also pointed to the legal drama following in the Texas GOP's own ranks, including Paxton and former Gov. Rick Perry.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span><span>"It isn&rsquo;t surprising that the Republican Party is resorting to smear tactics to desperately divert attention away from weeks of embarrassing headlines about Republican corruption and racism," Garcia said in a statement. "<span>The Texas GOP ought to take some time to clean house."</span></span></span></p>
Patrick SvitekFri, 24 Jul 2015 19:34:44 -0500http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/24/lawyer-ags-office-probing-election-contest-in/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20SectionsAppeals Court Rejects One of Two Counts in Perry Indictmenthttp://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/24/appeals-court-rejects-one-count-perry-indictment/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections
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<p><sub>Editor's note: This story has been updated.</sub></p>
<p>A state appeals court on Friday threw out one of two counts in the indictment against former Gov. Rick Perry, handing his lawyers their first major breakthrough in the nearly yearlong case.</p>
<p>The 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin specifically found a problem with a count alleging that Perry coerced a public servant when he threatened to veto state funding for a unit of the Travis County district attorney's office. The court left intact the indictment's other count, which accuses Perry of abusing his power.</p>
<p>Perry's legal team, led by Houston attorney Tony Buzbee, moved quickly to capitalize on the ruling, arguing it was proof the overall case against Perry, now a presidential candidate, is unraveling.</p>
<p>"One down, one to go," Buzbee told reporters Friday afternoon outside the Harris County civil courthouse. "The court today threw out what we believe to be the greater of the two charges &mdash; that coercion charge."</p>
<p>"The remaining count we believe to be a class C misdemeanor, and we believe that count is hanging by a thread," Buzbee added, likening such an offense to a "traffic violation."</p>
<p>It was not all good news for Perry, though. While his lawyers were confident the remaining count would be dismissed "on its face," it was unclear how long that could take. And the appeals court ruling moves Perry closer to a trial that could be a headache during a presidential campaign.</p>
<p>Michael McCrum, the special prosecutor handling the indictment, said he was weighing his options for how to proceed, including whether to appeal the latest ruling. Regardless, he predicted the case could go to trial late this year or early next year.</p>
<p>McCrum took issue with Buzbee's boisterous reaction to the ruling, saying Perry's lawyers have little to celebrate.</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">"I just can&rsquo;t help but still be amazed at the disrespect he has for our legal system," McCrum said of Buzbee. "This isn&rsquo;t high school football playoffs."</span></p>
<p>The appeals court was ruling on Perry's challenge to a district court's decision earlier this year not to dismiss the case on constitutional grounds. It was Perry's second attempt to get rid of the indictment that now hangs over his comeback bid for the White House.</p>
<p>"The Americans in this country are looking for a president who will stand up and do what&rsquo;s right, and that&rsquo;s exactly what Gov. Perry did," said Buzbee, who has donated to Perry's campaign. "This will have no impact whatsoever on his presidential campaign."</p>
<p>Begging to differ Friday was Texans for Public Justice, the liberal-leaning watchdog group behind the complaint that led to the indictment. Craig McDonald, director of the Austin-based organization, said that the case remains a "heavy burden" on Perry and the appeals court decision goes against his primary objection to the charges.</p>
<p>"The ruling by the all-Republican three-judge panel underlines the fact that the charges filed against Perry are not the result of a partisan witch hunt," McDonald said in a statement. "Republican judges exclusively have moved this case forward."</p>
<p>Perry was indicted last August in a case that centers on his veto of state funding for the public integrity unit in the Travis County district attorney's office. He had threatened to cut off the funding unless the district attorney, Rosemary Lehmberg, resigned following a drunken driving arrest.</p>
<p>At the time, Lehmberg's office housed the public integrity unit, which handles ethics complaints against public officials. Lehmberg refused to step down, and Perry later made good on his threat, vetoing the approximately $3.7 million per year budgeted to fund the unit.</p>
<p>The appeals court agreed with Perry's lawyers that his threat was a part of the give-and-take of politics, protected by the First Amendment. In doing so, the appeals court cast doubt on how state District Judge Bert Richardson interpreted the definition of "coercion" under the law.</p>
<p>On the abuse-of-power count, the appellate judges suggested it might too be to early for them to rule on it, especially before a trial.</p>
<p><em style="line-height: 1.35;">Disclosure: Tony Buzbee was a major donor to the Tribune in 2012. A&nbsp;</em><em></em><em>complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed&nbsp;<a href="http://www.texastribune.org/support-us/donors-and-members/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">here</a>.</em></p>
Patrick SvitekFri, 24 Jul 2015 14:04:42 -0500http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/24/appeals-court-rejects-one-count-perry-indictment/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20SectionsWaller County Releases Sandra Bland Autopsy Reporthttp://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/24/officials-release-sandra-bland-autopsy-report/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections
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<p dir="ltr"><span style="line-height: 1.35;">Waller County officials have released the <a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/documents/BLAND_Autopsy_Report.pdf">autopsy report</a> for Sandra Bland, the 28-year-old African-American woman found dead in the county jail on July 13.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>The report made public Friday confirms what officials have already said about the results of the autopsy &mdash; that the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences found the injuries to Bland&rsquo;s body indicative of suicide, not a violent struggle. Assistant Medical Examiner Sara Doyle ruled Bland&rsquo;s death a suicide by hanging, according to the autopsy report.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Bland was found hanged to death in her cell at the jail three days after she was arrested in connection with assaulting a public servant during a July 10 traffic stop by a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper. Her death has sparked outrage in Texas, the nation and worldwide for what many see as the latest case of white police harassment of a black citizen.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>The autopsy report describes a &ldquo;uniform&rdquo; ligature mark on Bland&rsquo;s neck that is not consistent with what one would expect to find after a violent struggle, said Warren Diepraam, a Waller County prosecutor who briefed the media on some autopsy findings Thursday.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>The autopsy found no injuries to Bland&rsquo;s hands, internal neck structures, eyelids or mouth. Such injuries are usually present when a person has been strangled in a violent struggle, Diepraam said Thursday.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-448b2040-c118-d2fd-47c9-ab9d10bf3599"><span>However, the probe into Bland's death is being conducted with the rigor and breadth of a murder investigation, Elton Mathis, Waller County's district attorney, said Monday at a news conference. The investigation will include forensic DNA and fingerprint testing of the plastic bag Bland appears to have used to hang herself, Mathis said.</span></span></p>
<p>Also on Friday, the Texas attorney general's office released Waller County's custodial death report, which provides the most precise details about Bland's arrest and jail processing.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Jails and law enforcement agencies in Texas are required to file reports on anyone who dies after being taken into police custody.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The report states that at the time of Bland's arrest she did not appear intoxicated. The report, a standard form that that Waller County officials completed, asked: "If&nbsp;death was an accident or homicide, who caused the death?"</p>
<p>The answer from Waller County: "Not applicable; cause of death was suicide, intoxication or illness/natural causes."</p>
Sophia BollagFri, 24 Jul 2015 12:28:29 -0500http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/24/officials-release-sandra-bland-autopsy-report/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20SectionsRoundup: Sandra Bland, GOP Sweet 16http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/24/video-roundup-sandra-bland-gop-sweet-16/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections
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<p>In the Roundup: State officials vow to find out what happened to Sandra Bland, the woman who died in a Southeast Texas jail. And an addition to the 2016 Republican presidential field could affect some Texas hopefuls.</p>
Alana Rocha and Justin DehnFri, 24 Jul 2015 06:00:00 -0500http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/24/video-roundup-sandra-bland-gop-sweet-16/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20SectionsIn Texas Jails, Hanging Most Common Method of Inmate Suicidehttp://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/24/hanging-most-common-suicide-method-texas-jails/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections
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<p><sub><span>*Correction appended.&nbsp;</span></sub></p>
<p><span>Texas county jails see 1 million bookings a year, and&nbsp;inmate deaths there are&nbsp;a rarity. </span></p>
<p>But of the 501 inmate deaths that have occurred in county jails since 2009, nearly a third of them &mdash; 140 &mdash; were&nbsp;by suicide.</p>
<p>And most of those suicides were by hanging, with inmates using objects available to them as ligatures: bed linens, clothing, telephone&nbsp;cords and trash bags.</p>
<p><!--<!--StartFragment-->-->"Anytime there's a death in custody, we are concerned how it occurred," said&nbsp;Brandon Wood, director of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, the 16-person state agency responsible for overseeing all of Texas' county jails.<!--<!--EndFragment-->--></p>
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<p>The Texas Tribune examined the commission's&nbsp;county jail death data as Waller County continues to investigate the hanging <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/23/officials-release-sandra-bland-autopsy-report/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">death of Sandra Bland</a>, a 28-year-old black woman&nbsp;who died three days after being arrested by a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper following a traffic stop in Prairie View for an improper lane change.</p>
<p>The medical examiner in that case has ruled Bland's death a suicide by hanging; <span>Waller County officials have said that a trash can liner was found around Bland's neck at the time of her July 13 death. They&nbsp;</span>are&nbsp;handling the case as a homicide investigation to consider&nbsp;all possible causes of death.</p>
<p>County jails are&nbsp;generally used as&nbsp;holding areas for people arrested but not yet&nbsp;convicted of a crime. Inmates inside the state's 244 such facilities&nbsp;&mdash; 236 public county jails&nbsp;plus eight privately operated ones &mdash; are allowed to make phone calls. They receive&nbsp;clean bedding. And trash cans are used to keep cells free of waste.</p>
<p>"We have to ensure the jails remain clean," Wood said. "They have sanitation requirements."&nbsp;</p>
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<p>The&nbsp;jail standards&nbsp;commission&nbsp;began keeping track of county jail deaths only six years ago, beginning on Sept. 1, 2009.&nbsp;County jails are required by law to notify the commission of any deaths within 24 hours.</p>
<p>While all deaths in custody are deeply concerning, suicides are a constant worry for the commission, which has pushed jails to keep all but absolutely&nbsp;necessary items outside of cells. For example,&nbsp;Wood and his personnel have urged jails to try to keep the&nbsp;telephone cords that stretch into inmates' cells&nbsp;short to prevent them from using them as nooses. But jails have to balance the&nbsp;rights of prisoners to communicate with their families and attorneys. The types of cordless phones that have been considered for county jails are difficult for inmates with disabilities to use.<strong><br /></strong></p>
<p>"It's a constant balancing act," Wood said.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;">Of the 140 suicides in county jails since 2009, 118 were by hanging, the commission's data shows.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>Of those hanging deaths, 60 percent involved&nbsp;linens like sheets, blankets or towels. Another 14 percent used articles of clothing, like socks or shoelaces. Electrical cords &mdash;&nbsp;like those connected to phones and televisions &mdash;&nbsp;were used in 12 percent of suicide deaths.&nbsp;Trash or laundry bags were used in&nbsp;7 percent of the hanging&nbsp;deaths.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The commission's county jail death data is not precise; it is collected from across the state's 254 counties, and different jails at times use different terms to describe the cause of death. But it's the only real-time glimpse of county jail deaths.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;">Of the 140 total suicides since 2009 &mdash; a figure that includes Bland due to a medical examiner's determination &mdash; 80 were committed by&nbsp;white men. Another 16 involved African-American men. There were 14 female suicides, including one Hispanic woman&nbsp;and one African-American woman.</span></p>
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<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;">Bland's death has renewed questions about why trash bags are available in county jail cells at all. While trash can liners are often available in county lockups, they are scarce in state prisons.&nbsp;</span>Jason Clark, a spokesman with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the agency that oversees the state's prison system, said there&nbsp;are no trash cans in prison cells.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.35;">Instead, the 148,000 Texas prison&nbsp;inmates, who are serving sentences after having&nbsp;been convicted of crimes, take waste out of their cells and place it in trash cans in common areas. Of the more than 5,000 prison&nbsp;inmates in solitary confinement or "administrative segregation," trash is handed to staff to throw away. The same goes for the 260 inmates awaiting execution on <a href="http://apps.texastribune.org/death-row/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">Texas' death row</a>.</span></p>
<p>"Most give their trash to janitors or officers to throw away," Clark said.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>Correction: A previous version of this story said there had been 502 deaths in county jails since 2009. There were actually 501.&nbsp;</em></p>
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Terri Langford, Mallory Busch and Annie DanielFri, 24 Jul 2015 06:00:00 -0500http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/24/hanging-most-common-suicide-method-texas-jails/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20SectionsBland Case Spotlights Gaps in Jail Oversighthttp://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/24/sandra-bland-case-shows-deficiencies-jail-oversigh/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections
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<p dir="ltr">When Sandra Bland was booked at the Waller County Jail, she told the staff she had attempted suicide before &mdash; a staff, it turns out, who had not been sufficiently trained&nbsp;on how to safeguard the well-being of inmates who are mentally ill, suicidal or pose a risk to themselves.<strong><br /></strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Three days later, the 28-year-old<strong>&nbsp;</strong>was found dead in her cell &mdash; an apparent suicide, according to a Harris County autopsy.&nbsp;Now, mental health watchdogs and advocates for criminal justice reform are sounding the alarm, saying Bland&rsquo;s case spotlights deficiencies in jail monitoring and oversight that can sometimes have deadly consequences.&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="line-height: 1.35;">Had Bland's<strong>&nbsp;</strong>jailers <span>followed through on mental health training and</span>&nbsp;complied with minimum state standards for inmate monitoring <strong>&mdash; </strong>including checking on her at least once an hour &mdash; they might have been&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.35;">better prepared to prevent her apparent suicide, mental heath advocates and criminal justice experts said. But they said the l</span>ack of sufficient mental health training for jail staff is widespread in Texas.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>With an annual budget of about $1 million,&nbsp;</span>the watchdog agency that sets standards for the state's disparate network of 244 county and private jails employs four people to<strong>&nbsp;</strong>inspect those local lockups each year,&nbsp;and&nbsp;one inspector to respond to&nbsp;inmate complaints. T<span>he agency is chronically</span><span>&nbsp;underfunded and understaffed, <span>experts say,&nbsp;</span>meaning&nbsp;</span><span>citations for jails found out of compliance</span><span>&nbsp;often come only after a tragedy.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr">The commission&rsquo;s annual budget is, in many cases, one-third those&nbsp;of comparable agencies in other large states, The Texas Tribune has found. Its<strong>&nbsp;</strong>much smaller staff of inspectors, until recently, had to share motel rooms because of a limited travel budget.</p>
<p dir="ltr">&ldquo;I think any advocate would tell you that the jail commission is not adequately resourced to do the kind of preventative inspections that we would like for them to do,&rdquo; said Matt Simpson, a senior policy strategist at the ACLU of Texas.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Even though it's<strong>&nbsp;</strong><span>understaffed and underfunded, criminal justice experts said, simply having&nbsp;an independent agency that inspects and regulates local detention facilities&nbsp;is nonetheless rare in the United States.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr">When Ana Y&aacute;&ntilde;ez-Correa, executive director of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, tells criminal justice officials in other states about the commission, &ldquo;they&rsquo;re like, &lsquo;Seriously? You guys have that?&rsquo;&rdquo; she said in a telephone interview.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Still, suicides remain a problem at Texas jails, accounting for 28 percent&nbsp;of deaths in custody. According to the jail commission, 140 people have killed themselves in Texas lockups since 2009.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The 40-year-old commission should &ldquo;absolutely&rdquo; be strengthened and better funded, &ldquo;but structurally it&rsquo;s way ahead of many other states,&rdquo; said Michele Deitch, a senior lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin&rsquo;s law school and the LBJ School of Public Affairs and an attorney who has worked on prison and jail condition issues for decades.</p>
<p dir="ltr">&ldquo;In the Sandra Bland case, we can get copies of recent inspections, we can find out what kinds of issues exist,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;In most states, that wouldn&rsquo;t exist &mdash; you couldn&rsquo;t get that information.&rdquo;</p>
<p dir="ltr">The commission is required to inspect every jail annually, and jails are required to submit operational plans to the commission for approval. The commission has the authority to shut down a jail found out of compliance &mdash; a move it has made just&nbsp;twice in the past 15 years. (In both cases, the county built a new jail, according to the commission.)&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">In the few other states that have official jail watchdogs, including California and New York, the agency often is housed within a state corrections department that also oversees prisons &mdash; something Deitch said she&rsquo;s never understood because jails are far more complicated to operate,&nbsp;full of people like Bland who haven't been convicted of a crime.</p>
<p dir="ltr">While those comparable state agencies have larger staffs and budgets than the Texas commission, they also oversee&nbsp;at least twice as many facilities.&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">In California, the Division of Facilities Standards and Operations &mdash; operating&nbsp;under the Board of State and Community Corrections &mdash; employs nine inspectors to review more than 600 facilities, including adult and juvenile jails. In New York, the Commission of Correction has 15 inspectors for 532 local jails and state prisons. Both entities have annual budgets of about $3 million.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Those states, and Texas, are&nbsp;exceptions, however. <span style="text-decoration: line-through;"><br /></span></p>
<p dir="ltr">&ldquo;Oversight in the U.S. is extremely limited &mdash; unlike in every other Western country, where independent oversight of correctional facilities is absolutely standard practice and required,&rdquo; Deitch said. &ldquo;There are some states, some counties that do have oversight mechanisms in place, but they are really the exception.&rdquo;</p>
<p dir="ltr">There has been some movement in the past decade toward more oversight &mdash; and more recently with incidents like the Bland case &mdash; but Deitch said the United States still has generally relied on court intervention to correct problems in lockups, often when it is too late.</p>
<p dir="ltr">There have been various attempts over the years to abolish or consolidate the Texas jail commission,&nbsp;said Executive Director Brandon Wood. But it has always prevailed.&nbsp;</p>
<p dir="ltr">When the commission was created in 1975, &ldquo;it was seen as the best model to utilize,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We carry out our responsibility very seriously.&rdquo;</p>
<p dir="ltr">As far as being underfunded and understaffed, Wood said, &ldquo;We operate as efficiently as we possibly can.&rdquo;</p>
<p dir="ltr">Wood noted a 2009 review of his agency by the Sunset Advisory Commission found it needed more employees &mdash; and it got three before all state agencies were forced to cut their budgets by 10 percent in the wake of the recession &mdash; but he also said he thinks current law gives the agency all the authority it needs to do an effective job.</p>
<p dir="ltr">That Sunset&nbsp;review also instructed the commission to target &ldquo;specific risk factors, including a jail&rsquo;s compliance with standards for the treatment of inmates with mental illness.&rdquo;</p>
<p dir="ltr">Staffers at many county jails take a brief online training course for handling mental health crises, a minimum standard enforced by the commission. In its operational plan, the Waller County Jail had committed to additional mental health training, but&nbsp;given the volume of inmates with mental illness, many advocates say it's still not enough.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The commission has &ldquo;made some serious efforts to try to increase training, but it&rsquo;s still, in my opinion, extremely inadequate,&rdquo; said Diana Claitor, executive director of the Texas Jail Project, which advocates for inmates.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Mental health watchdogs say it&rsquo;s dangerous to have an undertrained staff at a time when the burden of providing mental health care has shifted to county jails and away from publicly funded psychiatric facilities. Wood, of the jail commission, said many county sheriffs and judges feel the state has left them to shoulder the mental health care burden alone. <span style="text-decoration: line-through;"><br /></span></p>
<p dir="ltr">&ldquo;What they have relayed to me is that they feel their jails have become de facto mental institutions or state hospitals,&rdquo; he said.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Some advocates for criminal justice reform say the best way to reduce jail suicides is to reduce the number of people who are held for minor offenses. Y&aacute;&ntilde;ez-Correa said she hoped Bland&rsquo;s death would renew focus on efforts like a 2001 bill, vetoed by then-Gov. <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/rick-perry/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">Rick Perry</a>, that would have prevented police from arresting people for certain misdemeanor traffic offenses. Perry defended the veto at the time, saying police officers &ldquo;should retain their existing authority to use their discretion to arrest for a traffic violation.&rdquo;</p>
<p dir="ltr">Said Y&aacute;&ntilde;ez-Correa: &ldquo;I believe that if that bill would have been passed, if it hadn&rsquo;t been vetoed, she would be alive still.&rdquo;</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Andrew Keller, executive vice president of policy and programs for the Meadows Mental Health Policy&nbsp;Institute for Texas,</span>&nbsp;agreed that the Bland case could raise awareness of policy reforms aimed at keeping people with mental illness from being locked up unnecessarily.</p>
<p dir="ltr">&ldquo;To me it raises the question &mdash; what are we doing to systematically train law enforcement personnel to not bring to jail people that don&rsquo;t need to be brought to jail?&rdquo;</p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin and <span>the Meadows Mental Health Policy&nbsp;Institute for Texas</span>&nbsp;are corporate sponsors of The Texas Tribune.&nbsp;A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed&nbsp;<a href="http://www.texastribune.org/support-us/donors-and-members/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">here</a>.</em></p>
Edgar Walters and Kiah CollierFri, 24 Jul 2015 06:00:00 -0500http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/24/sandra-bland-case-shows-deficiencies-jail-oversigh/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20SectionsState Asks Federal Judge to Dismiss Lawsuit Over Birth Certificateshttp://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/22/state-asks-court-dismiss-lawsuit-over-birth-certif/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections
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<p>Texas Attorney General <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/ken-paxton/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">Ken Paxton</a> on Wednesday asked a federal district judge to dismiss a lawsuit that claims a state agency violated the U.S. Constitution by denying birth certificates to U.S.-citizen children of immigrant parents.</p>
<p>Attorneys with Paxton&rsquo;s office said that the Texas Department of State Health Services, which is being sued by 17 families living in Cameron, Hidalgo and Starr counties, has sovereign immunity under the 11th Amendment and cannot be sued in federal court because it has not waived that right, according to court documents.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The immunity extends to interim DSHS Commissioner Kirk Cole and State Registrar Geraldine Harris, who are also named as defendants in the suit, Paxton's office argues.</p>
<p>A spokesperson in Paxton&rsquo;s office would not discuss the filing further, saying the &ldquo;motion speaks for itself.&rdquo; A spokesperson for the health agency was not available to comment.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Attorneys with the Texas Civil Rights Project and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid sued the agency in May on behalf of six U.S. citizen children and their parents, who are undocumented immigrants from Mexico, Honduras or Guatemala. In an&nbsp;<span>amended June filing the number of plaintiffs rose to 17 families.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>The families claim that the agency is violating the 14th Amendment&rsquo;s Equal Protection Clause by denying birth certificates to children who are, in fact, U.S. citizens.</span></p>
<p>Local vital statistics offices, which are overseen by DSHS, have refused to accept what the families argue were once acceptable forms of IDs for non-citizens, including passports and Mexican matr&iacute;cula cards issued by the Mexican consulate offices throughout Texas.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Such refusal is de facto based on the immigration status of the Plaintiff parents. The lack of a birth certificate, in turn, is causing serious harm to all plaintiffs,&rdquo; the June filing states.</p>
<p>According to the DSHS website, non-citizens can request birth certificates if they have two secondary forms of identification, including a Mexican voter registration card or a foreign ID card with a photo of the applicant. Foreign passports are also acceptable if they have a valid U.S. visa, which <span>attorney Efr&eacute;n Olivares </span>said excludes his clients because they are undocumented.</p>
<p>The families also claim the state is improperly enforcing immigration laws, a responsibility belonging to the federal government.</p>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.texasobserver.org/children-of-immigrants-denied-citizenship/">statement</a> to the<em> Texas Observer</em> this month, a DSHS official said the agency accepts several forms of ID to verify identity but not the&nbsp;matr&iacute;culas consulares because the documents used to obtain them are not verified by the &ldquo;issuing agency.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The issuing agency is the United Mexican States, attorney Olivares said.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I would be curious to see if a similar ID issued from Canada&rdquo; received the same response, he said.</p>
<p>Olivares and lead attorney Jennifer Harbury also argue that if the state changed its policy, it did so without alerting the public or going through an official process.</p>
<p>According to the court filings, plaintiffs Diana Hernandez and Javier Reyes, Mexican citizens who moved to Texas more than a decade ago, received birth certificates for their children in 2009 and 2010 after showing their matr&iacute;cula cards. They tried again in January after their third child was born and were denied.</p>
<p>Harbury said Wednesday afternoon that her team would file a response after reading the state&rsquo;s motion. The problem appears more widespread than just the families in the lawsuit, she said.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;What I know is there is a very large number of people who are afraid to come forward,&rdquo; she said.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
Julián AguilarWed, 22 Jul 2015 20:11:52 -0500http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/22/state-asks-court-dismiss-lawsuit-over-birth-certif/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20SectionsRecords Show Bland Revealed Previous Suicide Attempthttp://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/22/dps-sandra-bland-video-wasnt-doctored/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections
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<p><sup>Editor's note: This story has been updated throughout.</sup></p>
<p>As she was being booked into the Waller County Jail following her arrest on July 10, Sandra Bland apparently told officers she had attempted suicide earlier this year, records released on Wednesday show.</p>
<p>According to the mental health questionnaire filled out by the Waller County Sheriff's office during her booking, a deputy marked "yes" to the question: "Have you ever attempted suicide?"</p>
<p>The deputy also wrote "Lost Baby" and "2015" in the boxes next to that answer.</p>
<p>However, on a computerized summary of her intake form, "No" appears in response to the question: "Attempted suicide?"</p>
<p>Capt. Brian Cantrell with the Waller County Sheriff's Office told The Texas Tribune early&nbsp;<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1531312352"><span class="aQJ">Thursday</span></span>&nbsp;that Bland gave two different answers at two different times to the suicide question.</p>
<p><span>"S</span><span>he was screened by a jailer right when she came to jail and then screened again when she was at the book in desk," Cantrell said in an emailed statement. "I</span><span>n short she answered the questions differently at two different times."</span></p>
<p>Bland also indicated to the jailers that she had suffered a loss with the death of a godmother, and that she had been diagnosed with epilepsy and was taking an anti-seizure medication.</p>
<p>However, she was not placed on monitoring as a suicide risk during her three days in in jail, according to the sheriff and district attorney's offices. Using a standardized grid of risk factors, jailers classified Bland as a "medium" risk of assault or escape.</p>
<p>County jails in Texas typically use a form provided by the state Commission on Jail Standards to assess an inmate's mental state, which includes the questions "Have you ever attempted suicide?" and "Have you experienced a recent loss?"</p>
<p>Bland's answers are the latest details to emerge about what happened after she was stopped by a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper outside Prairie View A&amp;M University for failing to use a turn signal when changing lanes on University Drive.</p>
<p>Late Tuesday, <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/21/video-officer-became-enraged-bland-over-cigarette/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">DPS released dashboard camera video</a> of the stop, which showed in graphic detail Trooper Brian Encinia losing his temper, threatening to Taser Bland and ultimately arresting her after she refused to put out a cigarette and come out of her vehicle.</p>
<p>"Get out of the car, now!" Encinia is seen yelling. "I will light you up." Bland is combative during much of the encounter, demanding answers from Encinia, calling him names and disobeying his instructions.</p>
<p>Three days later, Bland was found hanged to death inside the Waller County Jail. Her death was ruled a suicide by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences and the autopsy report, which has not been released, was forwarded to Waller County authorities who plan to take Bland's case to a grand jury.</p>
<p>The <i>Houston Chronicle </i>in an interview with state Rep. <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/sylvester-turner/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">Sylvester Turner</a>, D-Houston, first disclosed the suicide attempt earlier Wednesday. Turner said he heard about it during <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/21/waller-county-press-conference/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">Tuesday's meeting of state lawmakers </a>and Waller County officials in Prairie View.</p>
<p>The booking records were released on a day when the DPS reposted a version of the dashboard camera video after complaints from the public that the original version it released had been doctored.</p>
<p>Agency spokesman Tom Vinger said Wednesday in a statement that the video previously released, which appeared to skip at certain points, "has not been edited."</p>
<p>But the new version is three minutes shorter, and DPS did not respond to a question about why the length changed.</p>
<p>Vinger told The Texas Tribune earlier that uploading problems caused the irregularities.</p>
<p>"To eliminate any concerns as to the efficacy of the video, DPS previously requested the FBI examine the dash cam and jail video to ensure the integrity of the video," he wrote. "The entire video was uploaded to include the audio and video of the conversation the trooper had by telephone with his sergeant, which occurred after the arrest. Some of the video that occurred during this conversation was affected in the upload and is being addressed. "</p>
<p>Vinger added that the agency was providing a DVD of the video to the media upon request.</p>
<p>The death of Bland, who is black, has sparked outrage in Texas, the nation and worldwide for what many see as the latest case of white police harassment of a black citizen.</p>
<p>Also on Wednesday, nine days after Bland's death, Gov. <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/greg-abbott/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections">Greg Abbott </a>made his first public comments about the arrest and death.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Our hearts and prayers remain with the Bland family for their tragic loss," Abbott's statement said. "The family deserves answers. The Texas Rangers, working in coordination with the FBI, will conduct a full and thorough investigation that will deliver those answers and work toward the ultimate goal of ensuring justice in this case."</p>
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Terri LangfordWed, 22 Jul 2015 20:00:27 -0500http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/22/dps-sandra-bland-video-wasnt-doctored/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections